Loading of open railway trucks



Nov. 22, 1955 F. SCHEUCHZER ETAL 2,724,515

LOADING OF OPEN RAILWAY TRUCKS Filed March 10, 1953 attached to this machine.

particularly a ballast screening machinecombined with ele- Fredy Scheuchzer and Andr Scheuchzer, Lausanne, Switzerland Application March 10, 1953, Serial No 341,558-

Claims priority, application Switzerland March 15, 1952 l Claims. (Cl. 21442) This invention relates to a method andan installation for loading a plurality. of open trucks forming a single Ufliwdgm Pareto set, from an elevator which receives material to be dis,

charged into these trucks andwhich is situated at one end of the said set. l

The object of this invention is to achieve a saving of time and handling expenses in the loading. of trucks.

Oneembodiment of the installation to which the invention relates, chosen by way of example,is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure ,1 is a view thereof in side elevation; v Figure 2 is a similar view, on a larger scale, of part of the installation; t c

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic end view from the left-hand end of Figure 1, on the same scale as Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a partial plan view of the parts shown in Figure 3. 1 l

Figure 1 shows a set of three similar goods trucks G1, G2 and G3 of the open type, for transporting material Q delivered by a machine C by meansfof an elevator, E The latter may be, more ments of a machine for stripping railway tracks of their :ballast, similar to that described in Swiss Patent No. 126,750. The material Q may be material which falls from the screen, or non-screened ballast extracted from under the track.

On the bottom of each truck rest two supports H and H which are limited in length by discs 1' and i of larger diameter.

These cylinders thus constitute rollers for guiding, in translation, belt conveyors T1 and T2 of which the belts are represented by R1 and R2 and which are supported on these cylinders by the lower longitudinal beams l of their frames.

It can be seen that the supports H and H of all the wagons are of the same height in this example, so that all these longitudinal beams are in a plane parallel to the track. To enable the conveyors T1, T2 to feed one another, their frames support the rollers r and r, over which their belts pass, at different heights, the rollers r at the discharge end beinghigher than the rollers r at the opposite ends receivingthe material Q. i

In the position shown in the drawing, hooks F1 couple the conveyor T1 to the jib of the elevator E and hooks F2 couple together the conveyors T1 and T2 which thus form a train superimposed on the set of trucks and capableof moving relatively thereto in the direction of the track; this train only may be displaced by being pulled along by the machine C, or the set of trucks may be displaced in either direction by being moved by a locomotive, not

shown, or again the conveyor train and the set of trucks may be displaced simultaneously.

The installationdescribed actually renders it possible to employ a method of loading which can be carried into effect in various ways, and in the operations of which certain of the above-mentioned relative displacements are employed.

In a first application of this method, first of all the truck G3 furthest away from the elevator E is loaded, the various parts being in the position illustrated in which each comveyor forms a bridge between two trucks, resting on the support H of one truck and the support H of the other.

It is assumedthat the locomotive moving the set of trucks is coupled to the truck G3 and that the screening machine C is advancing slowly towards: the right. The output of material Q separated from the ballast by a screen depends not only on the speed of advance of the tools stripping the track of its ballast, but also on the quality of this ballast, which may contain foreign matter as possible to the right-hand end of the truck G3. This conveyor is then unhooked and is pushed towards the left so that it will be supported by both supports of the loaded truck and disengaged from the support H of the truck G2. After this, the set of trucks is moved back towards the right through the distance through which it had been displaced relatively to the machine C, in such a manner that the conveyor T1 can begin to fill the truck G2 beginning from the left. As the loading progresses, the truck is displaced by again pulling the set of trucks toward the left, and then the conveyor T1 is unhooked in order to centre it on the truck G2. Lastly, the set of trucks is moved towards the right in order to load the truck G1 directly by means of the elevator E, beginning at the left of this truck, and then the set of trucks is moved towards the left in the course of this loading, after which the set of trucks can be taken away to the place where it is to be unloaded.

This unloading is rendered possible by the fact that the number of conveyors is always one less than the number i of trucks in the set. Thus, the truck which is not supporting a conveyor can be emptied and the supports H and H replaced on this truck; this enables one of the conveyors to be pushed on to this truck in order to free another truck for unloading, and so on, by reason of the fact that the conveyors are of substantially the same length as a truck.

After the truck G3 has been loaded, it would be equally possible to refrain from pushing the set of trucks back towards the right, and to load the truck G2 in the opposite direction to that in which the truck G3 was loaded, and to do the same, or not, in the case of the truck G1.

From the above it is clear that a second application of the method may consist in beginning the loading of a set at the truck G1 situated under the elevator. For instance, when the set of trucks returns from its unloadings point, with conveyors T1 and T2 centred on the trucks G2 and G3, the truck G1 may be loaded beginning at its right-hand end, which is naturally adjacent since the set of trucks comes from the left.

After the operation of distributing the load in G1, the first conveyor T1 may be hooked to the elevator by being brought on to the support H of G1 and disengaged from the support H of G2. Then the set of trucks is displaced towards the left, if .thescreeningmachinedoes .notadvance sufficiently rapidly relativelyoto its output, and then again towards the right, and the truck G3 can be loaded only after the conveyor T2 has been rolled along until it can be hooked on to T1.

It isclear, therefore, that in whatever order the :trucks are loadedthere is one phase in the operations inwhich all the conveyors, *which may be more than two in number, form atra'in superimposed on the setof trucks which continues to be capable of moving relatively to this train which, like the elevator E :on which its position depends, may be stationary or'movable. This phase of the procedure is always that inwhich the truck furthest from the elevator is loaded. 'When theintermediatetrucks are being loaded, 'thetrain of conveyors comprises only some and not all of the conveyors. 1

It is clearly possible to employ means other than the shape -of the framesof the conveyors for ensuring that the extremities of two 'conveyor be'lts, one of which discharges material on to the other, will be at suitably different heights; this may be efiected by means of supports of different heights in the same truck, or'pairs of supports of different heights in different trucks. But these means 'donot secure the advantage of the same-easeof displacement of the conveyors along a set of trucks, or from a full set-of trucksj-to an :available empty set.

The'supports of the conveyors could be mounted on the lateral walls tor the ltlllCkS, and their rollers K could be replaced by simple bars on which these conveyors could slide. Insteadof mechanically coupling the conveyorsand the elevator, it wouldbe possible to make-workmen pernmere form the task of constantly keeping these devices ,at a

suitable distance from one another by manual action.

We claim: V

1. Amethodof loading a plurality of aligned open-vehicles from a loading means adapted'to extend longitudinally over said vehicles withthe loadingmeans including a seriesof aligned sections containing'conveyor belts each positioned to receive 'thematerial discharged from the conveyor belt-of'an-adjacent section and supported over'said vehicles by supports carried by -the vehicles, which comprises supplying material to be loaded to one end of the series of conveyor sections with the opposite end of the series of conveyor sections disposed over one end .of the end vehicle and gradually moving said vehicles relatively to the conveyor sections while maintaining the number of said conveyor sections at a value which is one less than the number of vehicles being loaded at a given moment.

2. Apparatus for loading attain of railroad cars and the like comprising, in combination, support means carried by said cars and providing an anti-friction surface, a pinrality of interengaging-conveyor frames slidable over the anti-friction surfaces of said support means, each frame supporting ,a driven belt conveyor, ,said frames when interengaged having their conveyor belts in overlapping relationship for discharge ofathe materiallcarriegl by one Iconveyor belt to the conveyor belt on an adjacent frame, the portion of said supports engaged by said frames being at a predetermined height above the level of the contents of said cars when loaded.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein the :anti-frictionsurface of each support engaged by the conveyor frames :is provided with :a cylinder rotatably journalled in-said "SUPPOI'LfOI' rolling engagement with the conveyor frames. I

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 3, whereineach support comprises :fourwertical feet and a rigid framework interconnecting said feet, and .pairsiof inclined bars at opposite .sides of: said framework Land above said framework for rotatably supporting :bearings for said cylinders.

5. An apparatus :as defined in claim '2, wherein each car is provided with vtwo supports, ithe :surfaceengaged by the conveyor frames of one support being higher than-the surface engaged by the conveyor :frames of .the second support.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 745,821 Greenwood Dec. 1, 1903 1,037,226. Feeney Sept. 3', 1912 1,218,055 Stuart Sept. 3, 191,8 .1.,563,3,87 MacEachen Q Dec. 1, 1925 1,920,500 'Garciaet a1 Aug. .1, 1933 2,116,905 Mercier et a1 May 10, 1938 2,457,267 .Peale et al. p .Dec. 28, 1948 

